Schnauzer Logic Episode 77 is Online!!! Rich Vos Brings The Funny...

sonovista, my friends... quick update as today (Thurs, Feb 25) is a bit out of control...

first and foremost, Schnauzer Logic Episode 77 is Online in all the usual places:

iTunes, Sidebar Pickle Player, Legacy Player, MP3 Stream, etc. (as of 11:51am PST it hasn't show up on the iTunes music store, yet, but if you're a subscriber it will download automatically, and all the other sources are working fine)

we had a great show yesterday with John DeKoven, Jeff Maranhas and Sheri Stevens in the studio, and our special guest, comedian Rich Vos, on our phone for more than 30 minutes... John knows Rich (he booked him at Bunjos earlier this month and they bonded over golf, two jews engaged in outdoor activities - how bizarre!) and asked him to be a guest on our little show... i know Rich though his stand-up, tv appearances and regular spots on the Opie and Anthony Show on Sirius/XM radio here in the states, but never met or spoke to him prior to pressing down the button on the phone and saying "Sonovista"... so you can gauge the speed and lethal quality of Rich's humor when you realize that about 30 seconds into our call we were all braying like donkeys into our mics, laughing too hard to take control of the show...

i think we upped our game to make the whole of Episode 77 "Vos-worthy", but you be the judge... for those who are fans of Vos and don't want to dig through our entire show, you can download just the interview as an MP3 file ::here::

we talked about a lot more, too, including an update on Tiger Woods, more news from cyberspace and the twitterverse, best-detention-note-ever, an interesting take on the Toyota 'crisis' here in the US, and much more... its a worthy listen and detailed show notes will be forthcoming from Boyana (and i might toss in a few links too)

in the meanwhile, its Plug-O-Rama® time:

Rich Vos on Facebook
Rich Vos on MySpace
Rich's "I'm Killing Here" Comedy CD
Rich's HomePage
and Rich will be at Magooby's Joke House in Baltimore today (2/25), tomorrow and saturday and at the Moehegan Sun Cabaret, next Saturday, March 6

John DeKoven's Bunjos Comedy Sun Cabaret has their weekly Pro/Am Open Mic tomorrow (friday) and headliner Jeff Applebaum this saturday night (2/27)

Mark Zinkle (who?) is a talented young guy on the move and sits in on Saturday's on KMYC from 1-3pm and has his own podcast, The Mark and Stephen Show that's worth a listen

and the rest of us got nothing (as it should be!)

enjoy the rest of your week... more show notes and links to follow... feel free to call the show line and leave your comments... and until next time:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

SchnauzerLogic Goes ***LIVE*** @4PM PST Today with our Special Guest, Comedian Rich Vos!

Schnauzer Logic - Episode 77 - Goes Live @4pm PST today
With our Special Guest, Comedian Rich Vos!

Here's how you can join in:

1. The phone number for the studio number is:

or you can use the Google Voice Widget on the right and be connected to the studio (or leave a voicemail message when we're not on the air!)

2. You can listen to a live stream of the show audio at http://audio.str3am.com:5070/listen.pls

3. You can peek (and listen) inside the studio on USTREAM.
The show page is at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/schnauzerlogic

Official Episode 76 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Here we go again! Episode 76 of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show is online for a few days, so here are the show notes.

Robin made a wonderful post after the show was recorded, putting maaaany links to the things mentioned in the show, so I will make these notes briefer. Guests at the studio the last Wednesday were John, Jeff and Sheri. Jason was again on the phone and Robin was guiding everybody through the interesting topics chosen for this episode. Nice explanations about some of the sounds that are played at the beginning of every show were made. You will now understand whose voices were used and why were they put there.

During the two hours of the show Jason talked about his “Oscars’ experience”, we’ve heard two of his wonderful reports for KNX radio and receive information about the Kevin Smith case with the Southwest Airlines. Robin wrote that they spent too much time talking about “FatGate”, but when you hear the show, you’ll enjoy their comments. Interesting to hear was the conclusion that was made by Robin about Auto Tune, but if you are interested to know more - download the latest episode. ;)

Also mentioned were Lindsey Vonn and her cover for Sports Illustrated, the new applications for smart phones which are changing the way we perceive information, Hunter Thompson and the angry voice message he left many years ago, the new Kindle Sheri got and the health issues that Sean still has. Jeff was again a great guest with his amazing sense of humor, so hopefully he’ll be back in the studio the next time there is a show. Parviz was not part of the 76^th episode, but I hope that he can make it tomorrow, for example. :)

I said that it will be briefer, so here it is. Nice and short show notes, he he. Don’t forget that our favorite Schnauzer now has a telephone line and you can leave your voice message whenever you want. A live stream is also available soooo – stay tuned!

Until next time!

Schnauzer Logic Episode 76 is Online!!!

sonovista, my friends! as noted in my quickpost below, Episode 76 is online and can be found in all of the usual places (iTunes, Pickle Player, Legacy Player, MP3 Stream, etc.)

we continued our live audio-stream experiment on ShoutCast, and also created a brand-new USTREAM.tv channel where you can watch us live in the studio while we record... we also waited expectantly for our new show phone to ring, but alas, like the night before the senior prom, no calls, no messages, a pint of Chubby Hubby® our only real friend!

the studio was full with John DeKoven (Bunjos!), Sheri and back for a return visit, our friend Jeff Maranhas, who i mistakenly put in Parviz's chair (mistakenly because as a still-new-member of our team he's learning the flow of the show and by sitting off to the side, he couldn't see my eyes unless i turned to face him, and so didn't have a visual cue of when it was okay to jump in, etc. my bad and even though i've been doing this for a long time i learned something new!)

we also had a visit from our friend, Jason Nathanson (KNX-1070) who discussed his visit to the annual Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon and allowed us to play his two KNX audio reports. we also spoke with Jason about the Kevin Smith/FatGate story and, upon reflection, we spent too much time on this and that was my fault, so apologies! (i think as someone who struggles with weight, i was particularly sensitive, but ultimately its not -that- interesting a story. mi scusi!)

we cold-opened the show with a vintage Parviz Fathali School of Broadcasting promo and also went into the first break with our vintage Dick Cheney Shot A Man In The Face/Dickie Goodman parody.

and now on to the random things we said we would talk about and didn't or links that may explain what the hell we actually were talking about:

1. Sarah Silverman problems at the TED conference
2. Steven Colbert (The Colbert Report) take on the Sarah Palin/Rush Limbaugh/"Retarded" controversy
3. Family Guy/Sarah Palin controversy
4. Kevin Smith story
5. BAFTA's Sunday February 21
6. Whitney Houston "Kiss My Ass" is from the TV show, "Being Bobby Brown" made famous by Joel McHale on the TV show, 'The Soup"
7. Ali Waller (didididah, didididah)
8. Auto Tune is everywhere (including Schnauzer Logic) and here's the most clever use i've seen so far: Autotuning The News
9. Pitchers and Catchers are reporting for Spring Training (Winter is Officially Over)
10. Tracy Morgan (as Pumpkin Escobar) in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
11. Chris Rock (as director Chaka Luther King) in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
12. Bears/Cubs (the other kind)
13. Olympics time-delayed on US West Coast
14. Don't Make a Fuckin' Maniac Out Of Me
15. Opera Music
16. Sports Illustrated Lindsey Vonn Controversy
17. Kindle 2 - Electric Boogaloo
18. NYT iPad pricing
19. Walk Don't Run (Original Trailer)
20. Hunter S. Thompson - "When the Going gets Weird, The Weird turn Pro."
21. Doctor (Kelso) on Scrubs v. Lt. Bookman on Seinfeld
22. The answer to the Seinfeld trivia question is John Cheever
23. Winnebago Man

fuck... i'm done... (Boyana, you OWE me big!!! instead of a show summary this week (or in addition to), how about a sociological examination of the nature of relationships between the characters on Schnauzer Logic, the limits of humor, and a theory on why we're not more famous (or rich!) - you have 30 minutes... begin!)

and to quote me: "And now you know what you didn't know, when you didn't know what you knew!"

until next time
Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
And Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

...we interrupt this program for a brief announcement...

sonovista, my friends! yes, Schnauzer Logic Show 76 is online and i'll be putting together some supplemental notes later this morning (with the Official Show Notes by Boyana® coming soon)

but in an intersection of two of my multiple universes (universi?) this morning i spoke with a Bulgarian station on my ham radio... LZ10ARDF, a special event station of the Bulgarian Federation of Radio Amateurs, on 18.13295MHz... first Bulgarian QSO (hamspeak for contact) it was short and scratchy but we heard each other for a brief exchange of call signs. for those interested, this is all due to the increasing sunspot activity we're just beginning to see as Solar Cycle 24 starts to get underway.



here comes the sun, indeed...
more to come...
r

Look For Show 76 Tomorrow (Wednesday)... Live @ 4pm PST

sonovista, my friends... just a heads up... we plan to record Show 76 tomorrow in the studio with Sheri and Parviz and JohnnyD and Jeff and Jason on the phone from LA... we're gonna try and do the live-stream thing again, so you can call in and be a part of the proceedings!

1. The show number is in the blog below, or you can use the Google Voice Widget on the right and be connected to the studio (or leave a voicemail message when we're not on the air!)

2. We're also going to be streaming the show audio over at http://audio.str3am.com:5070/listen.pls

3. We're also going to be streaming live video from the studio on USTREAM... the show page is at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/schnauzerlogic

no guarantee as to the quality of any of these sources (the podcast is the reference) but we're happy to let you in on the fun while we're in the studio!

see ya all tomorrow!
namaste
robin

We're Taking A Snow Day!

sonovista, my friends... in honor of the patenting of the fire extinguisher in 1863, the birth of jimmy durante in 1893 and bertolt brecht in 1898 (i wonder if they knew each other?) and the success of "Deep Blue" in beating world chess champion garry kasparov in the first game of their match in 1996, plus the snow storms on the east coast, sheri's new job and the price of cheese, we're taking the week off.

server stats would seem to indicate that a bunch of folks have fallen behind on their listening, so consider this a little chance to get caught up.

i still fully expect Boyana to write a blog post about the lack of show and this very weak excuse!

more to come

stay tuned!

r

Official Episode 75 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

The 75^th episode of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show matched perfectly with the time when the podcast celebrated its fourth anniversary, so it was even more special than ever. Our dear friend and host Robin prepared for us songs that all contained “75” in their titles, there was open telephone line for everybody who wanted to interrupt the guests at the studio, they were doing everything “live”…and goodies like that. It sounds like everybody had a great fun and I can admit that it was again pleasure to hear these amazing people laughing loud at this 75^th episode.

Parviz, John and Robin were the “core group”. Billy Sunshine called on the phone and Dave tried to interrupt the talking in the studio, but unfortunately something strange happened and the connection with him disappeared. But no worries! Everything was under control – as always when these guys are involved. The fourth anniversary of the show was a great reason for some of the new listeners to get some background information about how everything started back in 2006. These details were nicely connected with some present events that bothered the attention of the friends gathered in the studio. Jason on the phone started an interesting conversation about his recent experience with the Grammy awards. You can download the show or listen it in the player in the right of your screens to find out who were Jason’s favorites at the ceremony. Also, you will learn that Will I Am is a really nice guy who welcomes every journalist interested in listening to his looong story.

This is the right place to say to Parviz that my comment from the last show notes about the “fight” he had with Robin, Sheri and John was just a result from my (sometimes) strange sense of humor. :)

Oscars' nominees were also well presented in Episode 75 and everybody again enjoyed telling the full title of the film “Precious (insert a long senseless title here)”… :)

I should make a note that this show was one of the shortest from my point of view. It lasted something like two hours but when you listen to it the times literally flies. The mood was wonderful, because it was a celebration after all. Hours after the recording of the podcast Robin has written that he was not much satisfied from the final result, but I can only tell this to him – it is all in your head, Robin! Yeah, everything was superb! Really! :)

The Bulgarian national anthem was the song at the background while Parviz told some really kind words about his friendship with Robin, John, Sheri, Sean, Jason and all of the other people involved in the craziness called Schnauzer Logic. Wonderful place for me to say: “Happy birthday, Schnauzer! Be as crazy as you are now! We love as you are. ”

To all of you who have missed to celebrate with Robin - you can still call and leave your “sonovista” to him . :)

Until next time!

Schnauzer Logic Episode 75 (Our 4th Anniversary Show) Is Online!!!

sonovista, my friends... someone once said that it's not official until i say it on the show blog, so Schnauzer Logic Episode 75 is Online!

as usual you can grab it in iTunes, download the MP3 or listen in the online player on the right! (and for those asking, you can also listen in the "legacy player", though that sounds like the old guys who wave their caps before the MLB AllStar Game)

as to the show itself, well to paraphrase the late Donald Runsfeld:

"As you know, ah, you celebrate your anniversary with the show you have -- not the show you might want or wish to have at a later time. You can have all the show prep in the world and it can (still) be blown up..."

ah Donald... what a douche...

in any event, while it is a great show and i LOVE the energy and comedy that Parviz and John and Jason and even Billy Sunshine brought to the proceedings (and love them all for giving their time and talent to pump my little show), in my mind things were suppose to play out differently... i was also suppose to be thinner and have straight hair, but that didn't work out so good either.

so there you go... after more than 10 years of being back on the radio, i still get depressed when the thing in my head doesn't match the thing that actually happened, no matter how GREAT the thing that actually happened was... this is MY craziness and my instinct is not to jot it down in the show blog... but the other thing i've learned after more than 10 years of being back on the radio is that this is my CRAZINESS, and recognizing that how i'm feeling is not rationally related to how anyone else will experience what we did, helps me to put down the scissors and step away from the kitty... so i will leave in this paragraph in the hope that it may stop some other egomanical narcissist from beating him/herself up for the way life unfolds.

Schnauzer Logic Major Truth #1
Life is a lot like walking a miniature Schnauzer. You pretty much have to go where it wants to take you, or its a miserable experience for everyone involved.

anyway, back to the show... (boyana will have her wonderful detailed show notes as usual, but here are the quickies)

1. we tried something new this week and streamed the studio audio LIVE during the recording. at least a couple of folks seemed to enjoy this, so we'll try to do this again every week. the show audio is an MP3 shoutcast stream (meaning you can listen to it on just about every device, including your iphone) and is slightly-better-than-AM quality audio (not as good as the podcast audio) and you can listen to it at http://audio.str3am.com:5070/listen.pls

2. one reason for streaming the show live is that it means listeners can call us, while we're in the studio, on the new Studio Line:

during the week this number will roll directly over into voicemail where you can leave a comment, but during the live show we'll route this number into the studio so you can interrupt the flow of our conversation (or maybe even add something witty and give Parviz a chance to take a breath!)

3. tunes: so if you listened to the show live you heard 4 tunes, but if you listen to the podcast you'll hear a different 4 tunes (well, two are the same as the live broadcast)... as i was listening to the show during post-production, i realized i didn't like the flow of two of the songs, so i replaced them. the podcast tunes (in order) are:

• "75" by Ben Morris and The Great American Boxcar Chorus
• "75 and Sunny" by the Ryan Montbleau Band
• "High of 75" by Relient K
• "Seventy-Five" by Paul Brook

and the two songs we played but replaced were:

• "75 Highway" by Lightnin' Hopkins
• "75 Again" by The Four Horsemen

4. The Plugs:

• John DeKoven's Bunjo's Comedy Club
• Jason Nathanson's KNX - AM1070
• Billy Sunshine's KRXA - AM540
• Parviz Fathali's Preferred Sidekick

5. The corrections:
too numerous to mention and this is why i hired a virtual assistant in the first place!

anyway, many thanks and much love to you all for the voicemails and emails and tweets and notes and donations and kind thoughts and gentle words and prayers and prose and poetry. each week for the past four years a few good friends got into a small room together for a couple of hours to try to make each other laugh and take our turn at driving the universe for a bit of our collective journey... its been a nice way to share our stories and see the stars... and with any luck, in four more years we'll be doing the exact same thing...

so we got that going for us, which is nice.

until next time...

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Schnauzer Logic's 4th Anniversary/75th Show goes LIVE at 3PM PST

***Feb 4 Update***
We recorded the show yesterday but I haven't had the chance to process and upload it to the server yet. Busy day for me, so for now, please just chat among yourselves.
***Feb 4 Update***

sonovista, my friends!

SchnauzerLogic's 4th Anniversary/75th show goes LIVE at 3pm PST - listen live http://bit.ly/SL-LIVE or call the studio phone:

Official Episode 74 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

This time the show has started with a nice pre-talk between the guests at the studio who were Sheri, Parviz and John. Robin decided to give us again the chance to hear what is actually happening “behind the scenes” and the effect was great as always. (No edits, everybody!)

There were many topics in the Schnauzer Logic Radio Show number 74, but here are the main:

- Robin gave us an interesting insight about some of the sounds he is playing at the start of every show. All of you that didn’t know why were they chosen for this purpose – you can get the information from our host every Wednesday from now on

- Parviz was the one who started again the talk about the Leno/Conan television war. ;) There were bunch of funny things told in this segment, but may be the funniest was the fact that Parviz likes more Leno than any other show host on the TV air in the USA. ;) Everybody was arguing with him and (thanks God!) at the end this did not finish with a fight. ;)

- Probably the most popular topic of all was the thing that everybody commented in the last few days over the Internet. Yesss! The announcement of iPad and all of the noise around it. It was amazing to learn that Robin was part of the Apple company right at the beginning of their developing of the first iPod. And guess what? He owns one of the first prototypes of this unique gadget! Robin was also one of the people who decided which colors should be appropriate for the “color series” of the iMac.

- There on the show you can also find a useful tip about a program that shrinks DVDs so that you can transfer them on your iPhone or other kind of mobile device

- The big news this time was the announcement of John’s marriage. The BIG day will be his birthday – 17^th of July. J

- Some health issues were also chatted about in Episode 74, but more details – in the podcast, please. ;)

- If you didn’t know already, there is a clinic for people that have Internet addiction. I hope that no one of us will ever know where the hell this place is.

- Also mentioned in the show were some baseball players, the comedian Rich Vos and his appearance in Starbucks, “guilty pleasures”, some popular tv shows, politics and (of course) Obama, the new job Sheri is getting soon, one funny video of a woman with(out) skirt and so on.

- A great conversation about charity and the ways everybody can help was made right before the end of this chapter of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show history.

That was everything, told briefly.

Episode 75 with the fourth anniversary of the show is coming this week so – stay tuned! J

Schnauzer Logic Episode 74 is Online!!!

sonovista, my friends! Schnauzer Logic Episode 74 is Online and ready for your listening pleasure! you can find us on iTunes, listen in the online player (on the right) or download the complete MP3 file ::here::

Sheri, Parviz, John DeKoven and I popped into the studio yesterday for a quick go-round of the week's event and all hell broke loose... If you're a regular listener you'll recognize this as a classic "Parviz Needs Airtime" episode... if you're new to the Schnauzer Logic family you'll come to recognize this as a classic "Parviz Needs Airtime" episode. in any event its a show filled with much silliness and more than a few moments of thoughtful discourse (but mostly silliness), all leading up to next week's 4th anniversary show!

Boyana is already hard at work on the show notes and I'm trying to con persuade a big time/big deal guest to join us in our celebration, so stay tuned, and in the meanwhile feel free to call our brand-new studio voicemail and leave us an anniversary message!



(oh, and if you're still looking for links to reliable Haiti Relief charities, check out the post below for Episode 73)

until next time:
Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth, and
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Official Episode 73 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Hello everyone!

The new year has come and so the new show notes are back on track! 2010 started some weeks ago, but the health issues our friend and host Robin had didn’t allow him to record his wonderful show earlier. However, these are the show notes of Schnauzer Logic Radio Podcast Number 73.

This time Robin realized that in a few weeks it will be the fourth birthday of the show. Doesn’t this impress you? J But let’s see what happened in Episode 73. It was called a “mini schnauzer” because of its length (which was actually something around hour and a half!) and there in the studio were only Robin and Sheri. Jason was the one on the phone, explaining his recent experiences on the ceremony of the Golden Globes and all of the interesting stuff that happened in the media in the past few days. I should make a note that there were many days there in northern California with bad weather which was the first topic in the conversation between Robin and Sheri. However, don’t be upset – they are fine and hopefully we will all get a nice next Schnauzer episode just in a few hours.

For everybody that didn’t “received” the last messages of our host here on the blog – he is now almost recovered from his kidney surgery and sounds amazingly on the podcast even though he doesn’t feel like everything is back to normal… yet.

This time Jason made wonderful segment about the ceremony of the Golden Globes where he actually was. Yes, right there on the red carpet! He was reporting what was happening there – how many the boobies are and how great is Olivia from House M.D. ;) He and Robin made a list of the winners and talked quite long time about all of the films mentioned there. There on Episode 73 you can hear the names of Meryl Streep, Robert Downey Jr. and Mo'nique. Also mentioned were Dexter, Glee, Up In the Air, Up and… of course – Avatar.

The tragedy in Haiti was also one of the most important topics this time and while Jason told us about the young journalist his radio sent there, I was thinking that I didn’t actually chose the right profession – to be a journalist… but you know what? Bad things happen and the only thing we can make is to find a proper way to help people who suffer from them. It is that simple.

Also, there was a clear explanation about the Conan/Leno/NBC Late Night Reality Wars that are probably widely commented in the USA and you can watch really interesting and funny videos from the links Robin gave in one of the previous posts. Except for that, we now understood that Jason will finally accept his award for his radio journalistic achievements.

This was it. The 73^rd Episode of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. A mini schnauzer is not the way I will describe it, because it was a real pleasure to hear again the voices of these people and their laugh “live” on air. A great beginning of the new year, which should (and is already!) better than the previous!

Quick Reminder: SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Awards Tonight - Saturday Jan 23, 2010

sonovista, my friends... for those of you who are as obsessed with the awards season as we are, a reminder that tonight (Saturday, January 23, 2010) the Screen Actors Guild Awards are presented live (here in the US) at 8pm EST/5pm PST on both TNT (Turner Network Television) and TBS (the SuperStation)...

given my amazingly crappy picks at the Golden Globes, i won't even bother to try and predict the winners here (Basterds, Bridges, Bullock, Waltz, Mo'Nique, Dexter, Modern Family, Laurie, Margulies, David, Fey, Bacon, Dee, Star Trek, The Closer), but you may want to test your skill.

enjoy your weekend and let's be careful out there!
namaste
robin

Schnauzer Logic Episode 73 is Online!!!

sonovista, my friends!!! in case you just happened to be wondering, there is a new episode of Schnauzer Logic available for your listening pleasure... both the weather and my emotional health were less than ideal, but sheri made her way over and jason managed to keep from passing out, and together the three of us tossed together a little show (a mini-schnauzer, if you will) where we discussed the Golden Globe Awards, previewed the Academy Awards and took great delight in dissecting the Conan/Leno/NBC Late Night Reality Wars... plus a whole bunch more and some tasty tunes.

as always you can grab the show in iTunes ::here::

you can also find the direct MP3 download link ::here::

and you can listen online in the pickle player on the right.

our dear friend, Boyana, will be providing detailed show notes in due course, but in the meantime, here are some relevant links we discussed:

Haiti Relief:
Unicef
Red Cross
Top Rated Charities at Charity Navigator

Chinese Virtual Reality Video of Conan/Leno/Late Night Story
Original Mandarin
English Translation

IFC Independent Spirit Awards (Friday, March 5, 2010 - Jason was correct!)

Andy Borowitz - The Borowitz Report and Twitter

Gawker - The Late Night Wars (all video from every show bashing every other show)

KNX Morning News

Aunt Fran Bennet - Fran's Classics Rock Podcast

and that's all i got for now... thanks to all for the generous donations! much appreciated... and if you feel the spirit, some 5-star reviews on the iTunes Music Store would also be most lovely.

more to come, but until then:
Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth and
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

67th Annual Golden Globe Picks

sonovista, my friends... at home recovering from my med stuff, i'm feeling better every day but probably have another week to go before i feel like myself again (right now i feel like a cross between (insert first funny name here) and (insert contrasting funny name here).

in any event we're into awards season and tonight is the 67th Golden Globes... usually a pretty good show (as alcohol is served to the attendees) this year its being hosted by Ricky Gervais who seriously doesn't seem to give a shit about anything, so i'm hopeful that there will be some spontaneous entertainment.

IMDB.com has a great one-page PDF ballot you can download, fill in and print to keep track of the winners, and you can grab yours here.

i've filled out my own and am posting this online at 12:04pm PST (you can see it full size by clicking on the image)



hopefully we'll be able to do a show this wednesday and see how well i did...

until then, thanks to all for the prayers and well wishes on my speedy recovery... they seem to be working!

namaste
robin

NBC Leno/O'Brien Fiasco - I Wanna Do A Show SO BADLY!

Sonovista, my friends! well, here i am on a sunday afternoon reading through the hundreds of tweets from journalists at the Winter Television Critics Association meeting and their early morning "discussion" with NBC/Universal honcho Jeff Gaspin about the fate of the Jay Leno show and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and there's SO MUCH to talk about (the words 'stupid', 'boneheaded', and 'duh' sure to be overused) but we've got no show this week and perhaps next week as well... So you'll just have to read the excellent reporting of these fine folks, hold some good thoughts for my fast recovery from this coming tuesday's kidney surgery (they're going to send an X-Wing Fighter into the small utility tunnel, navigate through to the caverns of Urea, force open the security gate leading to the land of Kidnea (Right Kidnea, not the communist Left Kidnea) and then use their sonic cannons to blast the rebel base that's been holed up in Right Kidnea, and then beat a hasty retreat. I'm so excited to be a part of this fantastic operation!

In the meantime, here's the NBC coverage that will make you feel so much smarter about yourself, regardless of your IQ!

namaste
robin

Aaron Barnhart's TV Barn
Alan Sepinwall
The Futon Critic
TV By The Numbers

Quick Plug for HTML Kit Favicon Generator

sonovista my friends! if you look in your browser bar you'll (hopefully) see that the little "Blogger" B logo has been replaced by a tiny schnauzer-behind-the-mike logo... this is called a "favicon" and the HTML Kit folks make it super easy to generate your own from a photo or your twitter icon or just about anything except peanuts (apparently they're allergic to peanuts, which aren't actually nuts, you know, but legumes, which are a kind of fruit. just like me (huh?) wow... i got really lost there...) anyway, if you want your own favicon, just check out the HTML Kit Favicon Generator.

Happy New Year! and a Little Gift...

sonovista, my friends and the Happiest of New Years! hope you're all enjoying the new decade and almost done recovering from the holidays (or should i say HoliDaze? LOL, ha ha ha)

oy

in any event, i'm back from Vegas and we'll try to do a show this coming wednesday before i take a (fingers-crossed-very-short) medical break... i'll try to put up the first AirPlayReplay Directors Cut episode in the next week and will post a link here when its online.

in the meanwhile, Santa brought me a new mac and in going through and transferring files and projects i came across the video of my appearance on the old game show Win Ben Stein's Money... for those who don't know, WBSM was a "game" show on Comedy Central where three contestants would compete against each other and ultimately against Ben himself in order to "Win Ben Stein's Money" ($5000)... i tested and auditioned and got on and didn't win, but had a great time! what happened was (yah, there's a story) during round 1 i had some problems with my buzzer... at the break i called over the exec producer and said i was having trouble, but this is a common complaint (and usually not valid, since once someone 'buzzes' in the other buzzers are locked out. i knew i was first on more than a few questions (i had been practicing at home with a pen) but the exec producer blew me off... i was in the lead after the first round and got to play the second round... because one of the other contestants was so tall they moved us (ben is always at the end) so i moved from the left hand side to the middle and the other fellow moved to my station... as the game started again there was a question where both ben and i answered wrong... the cohost, Nancy Pimental, said, "well, Doug, why don't you try" and Doug said, "i'm trying to press the buzzer but its not working!"

AhA!

stop tape, send in the electricians (or someone like them) and get ready to start again... only during the break i went over to the exec producer and said, "see... i told you the buzzer wasn't working"

now i've gone back and calculated and if i had been able to get the extra two questions in the first round i knew the answer to but wasn't able to respond because of the broken buzzer, i would have had more points than Doug and gotten to play in the final round head-to-head against ben... but in the real world they don't go back, they simply invite you to return to play again (an advantage since you already know what to expect, aren't nervous, etc.)

this was fine with me and i left happy with lovely parting gifts.

cut forward 4 months and i'm getting ready to do the very first AirPlay show (see, it all ties together)... i needed a great guest for my very first show and contacted Ben to see if (a) he remembered me and (b) if he would come on the air (he had a connection with Santa Cruz as he was a student/taught/something at UC Santa Cruz)... ben said yes and we had a lovely and entertaining time and you'll be able to hear it when AirPlay is online again...

but, when the fall rolled around and they were getting ready to start production, again, of Win Ben Stein's Money, the producers called me to go over my credentials and confirm all my details and i let slip that Ben had been the first guest on my new talk show... uh oh!... contact outside of the show is forbidden and they were going to have to check with the lawyers... which meant i was fucked because there is no constitutional right to be on a game show and no percentage for the lawyers to risk letting me on and having to answer for a claim of collusion... so that ended my game show career, but a bad quicktime transfer of a VHS tape still exists and you can see it in four parts at the links below:

Part 1 - RDG on Win Ben Stein's Money
Part 2 - RDG on Win Ben Stein's Money
Part 3 - RDG on Win Ben Stein's Money
Part 4 - RDG on Win Ben Stein's Money



i really wanted a photo with Ben and so after our game was over i asked the producer if i could have one... he said ben didn't usually take photos with the contestants (time thing, i think... they taped a bunch of shows and it would take a lot of time), but he did go over and ask and i could see ben turn around and the fellow pointed at me and ben shook his head, 'yes'... i had to wait through the next game and that's an interesting story, too, watching the game from the audience after you've just played, but that's for a future Schnauzer Logic show... in any event i want to again thank Ben for being on AirPlay and taking this wonderful photo, for Jason who took the audition and test with me and Jason's parents who let me sleep on the couch in their basement (at the age of 43, nothing weird about that!) and to Misha who came down to LA with me to the taping as moral support, gal friday and official Schnauzer photographer... nice shot, misha!)

and that's it for now... my ears are ringing and i need to answer them (hahaha... tinnitus humor... never gets old or any less depressing!)

my new years resolution?

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Official Episode 72 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Schnauzer Logic Radio Show

Episode 72:

Sonovista, friends! Here are the next show notes of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. This time we will discuss Episode 72 and almost everything that happened in it.

I will start with the fact that this was quite serious episode, but as Robin said “Don't worry... we'll change all that in 2010!” It was talked a lot about who should be the man of the decade, while this was the last show for 2009. The guests at the studio – Sheri and Parviz gave their opinion and it was fun to hear their arguments about the list of people Robin was giving them from an online poll.

Robin also gave us some details about his experience as guest at “Gender Blender” on KBOO.fm last week. He didn’t actually had enough time to tell the story of his transitions – the thing that was the reason he is there on the phone, so this interview didn’t turn out as good as he expected. Questions from the host there that were “nobody’s business” pissed him off. However, he found on that program some really nice people he would love to know better. They shared some of his thoughts so it was not so bad experience after all.

Jason was the first guest on the phone and he received a special song about “Hanukkah” – as present from Robin who was again creative with the audio editing. ;) In spite of the great discussion about the nominees for the “Golden Globe” prize Jason made in this episode, he surprised us all with the news that he won the “Golden Mike” award. Congratulations, Jason! This is really awesome! In Episode 72 you can hear the names of the most of the nominated films (for the Globes) this year and the nice comments from everybody in the studio.

Important part of the show this time was the radio journalist from KCBS Doug Sovern whose report about AIDS in Africa (the first part of it; the other can be found here – on the bottom left) was played in Schnauzer Logic. It was horrifying to hear how many problems people there have, but at the same time it was important to know that slowly things are changing for good. Part of the discussion with Doug was the type of thinking and the work of Barack Obama, who is always a nice subject of discussion in the show. Guess why? I can say that Doug was the highlight of Episode 72 and we all hope that he can be part of the show again!

Sheri shared her thoughts about China and the change in the country for the last ten years. She had the opportunity to visit some of the destinations there. The people living there were amazing with the great effort they were making to change the status quo.

It is necessary to say that after a great talk for “Man Of The Decade” was chosen again Barack Obama. It was logic while there in the list were names such as those of a bicyclist and a writer of stories about boys flying on their magic sticks, right Parviz?! ;)

Great holiday wishes were made by everybody in the studio and I am sure they will become true when we know that Schnauzer Logic will continue with its first episode for the new decade in the first week of January 2010. Your fingers should be crossed in the second week, because then will be Robin’s kidney surgery. We all wish him a lot of courage and good health for the years coming!

From my point of view – that was it, the 72^nd Episode of Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. Until next year! Gouranga!… or in other words: Be Happy!

Interesting Artifact and the Podcastification of "AirPlay"

sonovista, my friends... well, having spent my entire Saturday working on setting up this new blog site i've run across some interesting old Schnauzer Logic and AirPlay artifacts.

for those who don't know, in the beginning there was Schnauzer Logic and today there's Schnauzer Logic, but for 10 weeks in the Summer of 2001, i hosted the 9am-11am/M-F morning show on KSCO. the powers that be thought that the moniker "Schnauzer Logic" was too silly (they wanted Cafe Santa Cruz), and so i came up with a bunch of alternatives... one was SonoVista (yes, the show was going to be called SonoVista - "Sonos" for sound, and "Vista" for an expansive view of things you wouldn't normally see, so SonoVista for a broad expanse of things you wouldn't normally hear - get it?)... when i suggested SonoVista the powers that be looked at me like a poodle trying to figure out a card trick, so i went back to the drawing board and came up with AirPlay (we're playing around on the air... right? right?!?) and "repurposed" SonoVista as a new greeting...

anyway, i had an actual producer for AirPlay, the legendary Jodi Lee, and after a week or so it was clear that a lot of our guests had no idea how to be guests, at least not on the radio... so i came up with a list of 10 tips, that i thought every talk radio guest should know (ie, #2 - Despite our best efforts, AirPlay is a radio show, so no one will be able to see you shake your head 'yes' or 'no' in response to a question.)

and here it is (you can click on the image to make it bigger):

now i used to run the old AirPlay shows as a low-bitrate stream on a shoutcast channel, but haven't done that in a few years... but i'm thinking that what i'll do is release all 50 shows/100 hours (including the interviews with ben stein, sugar ray leonard, chubby checker, gary coleman, etc) as a "Directors Cut" podcast, complete with introductory commentary, perhaps one a week during 2010. Sean was on those shows (he sat in almost every friday) as was John DeKoven and Jason and "Cranky Dog" Chip Street and Parviz and a bunch of other folks you may know from SL. so for those who have been looking for access to the back catalog, this will be your Christmas gift for 2010! (i also have all of the old Schnauzer Logic shows from KSCO as well as the live shoutcast streams we did before the invention of podcasting and may find a way to toss those up, too... they're a bit rougher, but still have some very funny bits.)

and now i head off to bed.

hope you all have your holiday shopping done, especially our friends on the east coast where an early storm has dumped almost a foot of global warming white stuff on the ground. Ho Ho Ho!

namaste
robin

You Found Us! - Feel free to park anywhere...

sonovista, my friends, and welcome to the Schnauzer Logic Podcast blog, 2.0.

as you can see things are still under construction (we don't have all the buttons up yet and are still moving over the older blog posts), but the podcast player from Podcast Pickle is working, so it already feels like home.

any comments or suggestions about what you'd like to see here would be most welcome!

show notes for Episode 72, our last of the year, should be arriving on a flight from Bulgaria any day now and will be posted straight away! then look for us to return in the new year.

i may post other random stuff along the way, so check back now and then.

namaste
robin

Schnauzer Logic Episode 72 is Online!!!

Sonovista, my friends! Well the last Schnauzer Logic for the year is recorded, encoded and trussed up like a Christmas Ham! I'll leave it to Boyana to provide the detailed show notes, but we discuss my recent appearance on Gender Blender, the entire description and audio of which can be found here kboo.fm/GenderBlender along with links to the guests, Donna Rose, Sassafras Lowery (who was VERY cool) and Joanne Herman.

We then finally get around to Jason Nathanson who discusses the nominations for the upcoming Golden Globe awards (Jay will be on the red carpet again this year), his newly announced win of a Golden Mike award, and other assorted nonsense (including a mashup of Alexandra Burke and Bill O'Reilly that goes on waaay too long!)

We also visit with Doug Sovern of KCBS and play part 1 of his 3 part series of AIDS in Africa and the work of the doctors of Faces Kenya and have a chance to discuss his experiences on this and other difficult stories. We also chat about the top/bottom stories of the last decade.

Lots of holiday tunes and much more. A well balanced Schnauzer Logic episode, it actually sounds like we know what we're doing and this could be a real radio show! Don't worry... we'll change all that in 2010!

Much love to you all for the happiest, healthiest and most prosperous of Holiday Seasons and the New Year! See you in the future, which has already begun!

namaste
robin

Welcome to Gender Blender Listeners

sonovista, my friends! (the traditional Schnauzer Logic greeting)... if you're here because you just heard me babble on incoherently for about 10 minutes on KBOO and Gender Blender, welcome... this is the show blog for a weekly 2hr comedy/pop culture/lifestyle/political/music show hosted by me and a rotating group of friends (they're always friends, they're just not always in the studio or on the phone!)... as i am 'trans' this technically qualifies as a 'trans' show (its true... i looked it up in the big book of 'wha!?!')... but as i was a talk radio host before my transition, after my transition, after my second transition and after my third transition (pant pant pant) this is first and foremost an entertainment show (which is the kind of show i love doing).. i have a unique perspective on gender based on my life experience, but that's not what the show is about... in truth, its about finding ways to make ourselves, each other, and the audience laugh, think, and laugh some more.

check out some of our recent shows (we've started up again after an extended break), or dig through the archives for our interviews with Mort Sahl, Jann Karam, J. Keith VanStratten, Lisa Parade, Bobby Kelton, Taylor Negron or any of the musicians, comedians or authors we've interviewed. as i used to say in my KSCO promos: if you're not doing anything better on a saturday night, it wouldn't kill you to listen.

strong recommendation indeed!

namaste
robin

Official Episode 71 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

Here we are – almost at the middle of December when Episode 71 of Schnauzer Logic radio show is already online. Let’s see what happened this time. Guests at the studio were Sheri, John and Parviz. This time no “phone guests”, but the talk with these people was as interesting and funny as always.

The show started with Robin’s story about his experience with listening short wave radio stations in the beginning of the 70s. Surprisingly for me, he knew a lot about stations such as this in Sofia or in Moscow, because he was a kid that enjoyed listening to music and talking from abroad at his backyard. Sending postcards to these programs and receiving an answer from countries such as Albania and Romania was also something likely that happened to Robin when he was a bit younger. ;)

This time we also heard my first audio report for Schnauzer Logic… It was actually my reading of the previous show notes, but it looked like everybody enjoyed what I’ve made. Next time I will try to do something different as I already have some suggestions from Robin, but we’ll see what will happen.

Main part of Episode 71 was Parviz’s “List of dead people: 2009”. Anything strange in this? Noooope. And, by the way – this was the part were everybody laughed for a veeery long time. Again. However – there were Walter Cronkite, Les Paul, Patrick Swayze, John Updike, Natasha Richardson and many others (someone said Michael Jackson? ;)) in this list. Sheri, John and Robin gave their opinions and impressions about everybody mentioned, pointing at Parviz that he is not well prepared for this segment. ;) On the day after the show was recorded Robin gave a long list with errors that they all made in the comments – a fact that increased the funny element in all this. Listen to the show and you’ll see… [Robin's Comment: Boyana is being very kind in her brief description of this segment. For the record, although Parviz was in a state of panic that we were going to cut him off, the actual discussion of Dead 2009 lasted for almost exactly 50 minutes, including one song break, or just under 50% of the show... I'm just saying...]

One of the nicest surprises this time was the info that someone has made a donation for the Schnauzer Logic Radio Show. So kind of you, whoever you are! This was a reason for Robin to give us advice to donate as much as we can afford and whenever we have ability to do it. An advice that also has my strong support!

Other top ten lists of 2009 were put in the conversation along with a short talk about saying “Merry Christmas” and the message people sent with it to others.

Episode 71 ended some minutes after its second hour without John in the studio. He left before the last segment of the show which Robin dedicated to his thoughts about the experience being transsexual and the process of gender transition. The death of Mike Penner was the reason he started writing some of his own experiences that will probably end up as an interesting book. This theme was also the reason Robin was invited to be a guest on "Gender Blender" next Tuesday, December 15th – on KBOO.fm.

Being happy depends on you and no one could not tell you what should be the way of your life. This is a nice way to end these show notes. Don’t forget that I am saying with them that Episode 71 of the history of Schnauzer Logic is online and waiting for you!

Again – wonderful show, a lot of laugh, good friends, nice music and positive vibes – all in Episode 71.

Until next time!

Go Elf Yourself (The Schnauzer Logic Version)

Thanks to Sheri, we've all been "Elf'd"... check out the video in the new SchnauzerLogic Video Player over in the sidebar.

Episode 71 Erratta

Sonovista, my friends! The official show notes from Boyana will be coming in due course, but in listening back to Episode 71 it appears that our grasp on the truth was looser than usual... this thread is a place to record various errata:

1. John Hughes did not write or direct Chinatown. Chinatown was directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne and Roman Polanski.

2. John Updike did not write Watership Down. Watership Down is a heroic fantasy about a small group of rabbits written by British author Richard Adams. John Updikes "Rabbit" series includes Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered. Unlike Watership Down, the 'Rabbit" series is not about a rabbit.

3. Walter Cronkite did not end his newscasts with, "That's my story and i'm sticking to it". That phrase was recited by Colin Quinn as anchor of the Weekend News Update on Saturday Night Live. Chevy Chase signed off by saying, "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not". Cronkite said, "And That's The Way It Is (insert date) - For CBS News this is Walter Cronkite. Good Night".

4. Bea Arthur first appeared on TV in the role of Maude as Edith Bunker's cousin, Maude Finley in the series All In The Family.

5. In my discussion about moving the show blog from tblog to blogger i completely 'f'd' up and actually described the process of moving the blog from blogger to tblog. I attribute this total mental collapse to either (a) a micro-stroke or (b) alpha particles from outer space. In either event, the best way to make sure you always arrived at the show blog is to bookmark www.SchnauzerLogic.com

6. A few hunger-related charities that are highly rated as having low operating expenses/overhead and using the greatest percentage of their income for direct charitable purposes:

Action Against Hunger

Feeding America's Hungry Children

Mazon: A Jewish Response To Hunger

Sacred Heart Community Service

7. More info as i get it but right now it looks like i'm going to be a guest on "Gender Blender" next Tuesday, December 15th. The show runs from 6pm to 7pm pacific time and i'm scheduled to be on for 10 minutes in the second half hour. You can listen live on KBOO.FM

8. It's Larry "Bubbles" Brown and not Larry's Bubble Brown. More alpha particles, obviously.

to be continued...

The Photograph Parviz Didn't Want You To See...

studio shot from Episode 71 - a protective order prohibits me from telling you what Parviz was hiding.

SchnauzerLogic Episode 71 is Online!!!

Sonovista, my friends! Episode 71 is online. How to describe the episode? Parviz, Parviz, Parviz! (hmmm mmmm mmmm!)

Show notes from Boyana will most certainly follow as Summer follows Spring!

until next time:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth and
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome

namaste
robin

Official Episode 70 Show Notes by Boyana Atanasova

This time, the show started really amazing! Robin decided to begin Episode 70 of Schnauzer Logic with the Bulgarian national anthem. What a great surprise for me and a wonderful gesture of our host, buddy and pal! :p

Guests at the studio were Sheri Stevens and John De Koven. Ops, I almost forgot Jeff Maranhas just like Robin did several times with John. On the phone there was a talk with Sean and Jason. As Robin said, Episode 70 was “politics free” so pop culture was the general topic of the show. Main role was given to Tiger Woods and the voice mail message that he sent to his lover. Everybody enjoyed commenting this strange message while Jason made a material about it on the KNX radio.

Pop culture this time meant the wedding of Chelsea Clinton, TV shows that everybody in the studio and on the phone watches, a scene from “The Big Lebowski”, Ivana Trump, Samuel L. Jackson (<=this link is NOT safe for work!) and so on… It was surprising to know how many hours Robin watches television per week! All of the guests made their comment on what they like and don’t like from the list of famous shows Robin gave them.

Interesting twist in this conversation was the talk about men and women in their 40s or 50s who decided to discover themselves as gays or lesbians. The main point of view that everybody shared was this one - people don’t usually look strange on such things when they happen at that age.

Sean (? I don’t make great difference between Sean and Jason’s voice, sorry!)… hmm, I am not sure that it was actually Sean, but however – he shared his experience in writing a script for a horror movie. If we trust him – “horror” people are not as geeky as we think they are. He received many ideas from fans of this genre and now he expects a good result of his hard work from the past few months. He was the one that said that there is money for such project so everybody wished him a good luck with it.

Robin was the next one who revealed news about Schnauzer Logic. He is now looking for second virtual assistant who will help him made an application for iPhone. It is supposed to be an easy way to have access to all of the podcasts recorded under the mark of Schnauzer Logic. If everything goes right – it may help everyone who is interested to read also this kind of show notes after the show is recorded and put online.

It was quite an amazing to understand that Parviz was the man who stopped a flight some years ago and Robin was helping him getting out of the trouble he had. The story is getting even more hilarious when you hear the details on Episode 70, while you reading the news posted about it here and here.

Jeff in the studio was also one of the attractions this time. Except for his sense of humor and funny way of interrupting others’ conversation, he told a strange story that happened to him not long ago. There were pajamas, handcuffs and police involved, but if you want to know the details – just check Episode 70 online.

And that was all. Actually – not all, but almost everything interesting that happened in Schnauzer logic radio show – Episode 70.

Until next time:

Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell The Truth and
Don't Be Attached To The Outcome!